EXCLUSIVE Taxi shortage to leave partygoers with long waits this Christmas - Free Now boss
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Adrian Weckler
November 17 2022 02:30 AM
The global boss of taxi firm Free Now has said there will be shortages of lifts in Ireland this Christmas.
Speaking exclusively to the Irish Independent’s Big Tech Show podcast, Thomas Zimmermann said it now looks unavoidable and blamed a lack of drivers in the market.
“There’s always a Christmas shortage, because a lot of drivers go on vacation,” he said. “We have seen post-pandemic shortages in supply [of drivers] across Europe. A lot of drivers needed to change profession during the pandemic. Many did not come back.”
Mr Zimmermann said it remains hard to recruit enough drivers to meet the post-pandemic demand, which has risen by a third since the lockdowns ended.
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“There’s competition for drivers, especially in the Irish market,” he said. “There are also quite a lot of formalities you need to do.”
He said that while he did not think Irish taxi regulations were too strict, the “motivation” of officials creating policy could be better.
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Free Now CEO Thomas Zimmermann says car-hailing is part of urban transport mix of the future
“I think it’s more about maybe the motivational aspects from the city or the Government,” he said.
“If you see there’s a shortage in drivers, you want to motivate that ecosystem because something besides public transport plays a very big role in the general infrastructure of the city. Therefore, it should be in the interest of the minister or the municipalities as well.”
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Mr Zimmermann said there was disappointment in the industry that the Government had delayed legalising e-scooters, which still officially require a driver’s licence, tax and insurance under traditional motoring laws in Ireland.
Free Now is one of a number of “mobility” firms that has been trying to launch escooter rental services in the Irish market.
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“To a certain extent it is a disappointment,” he said. “Because we can provide that service to Irish users. If you compare it to other countries where we have already brought a mobility offering, you can see the beauty for the end user in terms of cross-usage.”
He also doubted whether Free Now would be able to expand a new service integrating its taxis, e-bikes and e-scooters with public transport ticketing, as it has just done in Germany’s largest transit zone.
“Dublin doesn’t have a central API [application programming interface] for public transport systems,” he said.
“There’s definitely a plan to go to more European cities to integrate public transport, but in Dublin it’s hard to tell. The public transport system in Ireland is comparatively small.”
Mr Zimmermann said autonomous taxis are unlikely to be seen as a mainstream service in the coming years.
He also said the public debate over Uber’s private-hire model had evolved in markets to accommodate a shortage of public hire vehicles.
To hear the full interview with Free Now CEO Thomas Zimmermann, download or stream the Big Tech Show on any podcast platform.
Free Now CEO Thomas Zimmermann says car-hailing is part of urban transport mix of the future
Free Now chief executive Thomas Zimmermann
Free Now chief executive Thomas Zimmermann
Adrian Weckler
November 17 2022 02:30 AM
Thomas Zimmermann is used to the slagging over the name.
“I know practically all of the jokes,” says Free Now’s recently-appointed global CEO.
The taxi company’s name is still invoked in frustration on social media whenever someone is left waiting. He insists, though, that the rebranding from ‘Hailo’ some years back has been a success.
“In most countries by now we see higher awareness than we saw during the Hailo era,” he says.
Ireland, he says, remains “important” for the company, which now spans 10 countries across Europe with 54 million users and multiple services beyond taxis, such as e-bikes and e-scooters.
But taxis are still its core brand in Ireland. And Mr Zimmermann says that we’ll once again face a Christmas period of shortages.
“There’s always a Christmas shortage, because a lot of drivers go on vacation,” he says.
It’s not just that, though.
A lot of drivers needed to change profession during the pandemic. Many did not come back
“We have seen, in general, post-pandemic shortages in supply across Europe. A lot of drivers needed to change profession during the pandemic. Many did not come back.”
The situation is improving now, he says, but not enough to prevent noticeable shortages in the coming weeks.
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Is it hard to get drivers?
“In general, yes,” he says. “There’s competition [for them], especially in the Irish market. There are also quite a lot of formalities you need to do and a test you need to pass.”
Are the regulations here too strict in that regard?
“Not necessarily,” he says. “I think it’s good if there are some regulations because this also encompasses a certain amount of safety and quality that we can then deliver to our users, which is important. But I think it’s more about maybe the motivational aspects.”
By ‘motivational aspects’, Mr Zimmermann is talking about public policy in helping to encourage drivers into the workforce.
“While we provide training, it could also be something that comes from the city or the government,” he says.
“If you see there’s a shortage in drivers, you want to motivate that ecosystem because something besides public transport plays a very big role in the general infrastructure of the city. So therefore, it should be in the interest of the minister or the municipalities as well.”
Irish public policy on transport issues that Free Now is interested in has been a mixed bag for the firm.
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For example, Free Now, like others, has been ready to go on the introduction of e-scooter rental for some time. But legalisation for e-scooters, which was expected to be in place by now, has been kicked back by the Government until 2023.
Is this a disappointment?
“Yeah, to a certain extent it is,” says Mr Zimmermann. “Because we can provide that service to Irish users. If you compare it to other countries where we have already brought a mobility offering, you can see the beauty for the end user in terms of cross usage.”
Free Now has other ideas, too, that look like being adopted in Europe years before Irish authorities will consider them. It has just launched an integrated ticketing system in Germany’s largest transit zone that lets people link up public transport services with Free Now services in the same app.
The public transport system in Ireland is comparatively small
Dublin is on the list of hopefuls for expansion of the service. But it would depend on bus and train authorities’ systems being interoperable., This looks like an unlikely scenario, given the slow pace at which Irish public transport systems implement technology.
“There’s definitely a plan to go to more European cities to integrate public transport.
“But in Dublin, it’s hard to tell. You don’t have a central API for public transport systems. And then there’s also how big the demand is. The public transport system in Ireland is comparatively small”
There are other reasons why Free Now might want to see an acceleration of such integrated ticketing. Across Europe, cars are in the early stages of being banned in cities. Paris, Oslo and Ghent are seen as forerunners of what could become the norm in major European metropolitan areas in the next decade.
As a company still reliant mostly on cars for hire, is this of concern?
“Actually, not very much,” he says. “To a certain extent, I would say it’s the opposite. What we are striving for as a company is to change how what the urban landscape in metropolitan areas looks like. Cars sometimes occupy space that could be used better, right? And then you have all the congestion and stuff that comes with it. [In some of those cities banning cars] it’s private cars that are not allowed but you can enter if you’re car sharing, or if you’re using a ride-hailing service. So it’s not that the city completely closes up or that nobody [in a car] can get in. They just want to restrict it.”
To listen to the full interview, download or stream today’s The Big Tech Show podcast on any podcast platform.
